From the German news report (DeepL translation):
Commemorating dead ancestors? Not in Brandenburg. A recent police operation in the Dahme-Spreewald district caused great outrage. On December 27, police officers moved into the forest cemetery in Halbe and disposed of grave candles and flowers that had been placed on the graves of German soldiers. The officers justified their action with a violation of the right of assembly - and an alleged right-wing extremist mobilization.
by Manfred Ulex
The organizers placed the grave candles in Halbe, where 25,000 victims of the Battle of Halbe, which took place towards the end of the Second World War, are buried, on 22 December and in the following days. According to the organizer, the Facebook page “Germany's wars and its soldiers 1813-1945”, 5,500 candles with LED lights were used for this purpose. They were to be collected again at the end of the year and used for further commemorative activities. The organizers regularly commemorate fallen German soldiers from the 19th and 20th centuries at cemeteries throughout the country. The commemorative action in Halbe, the largest German war cemetery, is of particular importance every year in December.
Police justification seems contrived
This year, however, it came to an abrupt end. On December 27, around ten police officers collected the candles in Halbe and disposed of them in a container. The Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (MAZ) first reported on the incident.
At the request of Anonymous News, a spokesperson for the Brandenburg South Police Directorate said: “There were indications of a supra-regional mobilization of the extreme right-wing scene” - and the “initial suspicion of a gathering”. For example, the extreme right-wing party “Die Heimat”, the former NPD, is said to have called on Telegram to commemorate the German soldiers. However, according to the police, such politicized commemoration is prohibited on gravesites. The fact that the cemetery in Spremberg was illuminated was seen by the police as an “indication of the nature of an assembly” and a “political action”, as was the publication of images on social media. The police did not want to say exactly which posts on Telegram were involved. There was no criminal offense on the basis of which the police would have been called out.
From the German news report (DeepL translation):
>Commemorating dead ancestors? Not in Brandenburg. A recent police operation in the Dahme-Spreewald district caused great outrage. On December 27, police officers moved into the forest cemetery in Halbe and disposed of grave candles and flowers that had been placed on the graves of German soldiers. The officers justified their action with a violation of the right of assembly - and an alleged right-wing extremist mobilization.
>
by Manfred Ulex
>
The organizers placed the grave candles in Halbe, where 25,000 victims of the Battle of Halbe, which took place towards the end of the Second World War, are buried, on 22 December and in the following days. According to the organizer, the Facebook page “Germany's wars and its soldiers 1813-1945”, 5,500 candles with LED lights were used for this purpose. They were to be collected again at the end of the year and used for further commemorative activities. The organizers regularly commemorate fallen German soldiers from the 19th and 20th centuries at cemeteries throughout the country. The commemorative action in Halbe, the largest German war cemetery, is of particular importance every year in December.
>
Police justification seems contrived
>
This year, however, it came to an abrupt end. On December 27, around ten police officers collected the candles in Halbe and disposed of them in a container. The Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (MAZ) first reported on the incident.
>
At the request of Anonymous News, a spokesperson for the Brandenburg South Police Directorate said: “There were indications of a supra-regional mobilization of the extreme right-wing scene” - and the “initial suspicion of a gathering”. For example, the extreme right-wing party “Die Heimat”, the former NPD, is said to have called on Telegram to commemorate the German soldiers. However, according to the police, such politicized commemoration is prohibited on gravesites. The fact that the cemetery in Spremberg was illuminated was seen by the police as an “indication of the nature of an assembly” and a “political action”, as was the publication of images on social media. The police did not want to say exactly which posts on Telegram were involved. There was no criminal offense on the basis of which the police would have been called out.
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